If I purchase a TiVo Roamio, would I need a cablecard if I only have standard cable (Coax cable straight to the TV, no cable box)? Obviously, I would not get HD through the cable, but would it work at SD. I have read conflicting stories online.

If I purchase a TiVo Roamio, would I need a cablecard if I only have standard cable (Coax cable straight to the TV, no cable box)? Obviously, I would not get HD through the cable, but would it work at SD. I have read conflicting stories online.

It's not actually SD vs. HD, it's analog vs. digital. A Roamio is digital only. If your cable system is truly analog only (very unusual these days, then a Roamio is useless. The channels might also be available in digital, but you would need a CableCARD to get guide data.

It's not actually SD vs. HD, it's analog vs. digital. A Roamio is digital only. If your cable system is truly analog only (very unusual these days, then a Roamio is useless. The channels might also be available in digital, but you would need a CableCARD to get guide data.

The analog channels on Time Warner Cable won't be viewable on the Roamio. Time Warner usually sends through the local broadcast channels in clear-QAM (digital), so you would probably be able to watch them without a CableCard, but without a CableCard to do the channel mapping, you wouldn't be able to have guide data and schedule recordings. You could try buying a CableCard off ebay to do the channel mapping (it sometimes works, but YMMV), or you could just rent a CableCard from TWC. The CableCard fee on TWC is only $2.50/month.

Not getting a CableCard would be dumb, even with a 2-tuner Premiere, which could tune analog channels, for two reasons. The first is the obvious, that analog SD looks like crap, and that they offer CableCards to get HD, and the second is that TWC is in the process of modernizing and upgrading their systems, and in the process, they will get rid of legacy analog like Comcast already has.

With a Roamio though, you have to have a CableCard. Roamio is an all-digital DVR built for an all-digital world.

Not getting a CableCard would be dumb, even with a 2-tuner Premiere, which could tune analog channels, for two reasons. The first is the obvious, that analog SD looks like crap, and that they offer CableCards to get HD, and the second is that TWC is in the process of modernizing and upgrading their systems, and in the process, they will get rid of legacy analog like Comcast already has.

Not only that, but you get NO GUIDE DATA for digital channels without a cable card..

(Though I used my S3 & I think even my Tivo HD for quite a while as analog only recorders... because virtually all of the channels I cared about were available analog.. and I like(d) analog since it took up way less space, and to me, analog artifacts are way less annoying than MPEG artifacts.. But yes, when behaving properly, even SD channels look a bajillion times better than analog stations.)